The more I explain about LACUNA, the less fun it is to discover over time/while GMing/while playing, so I'm going to very much shy heavily away from describing the actual content of the game besides maybe what a player would need to know on their first time creating a character. If you want a description of it without giving that much away, though, I've heard it compared to a lot of things - my personal assessment is that it's a sort of Matrix/SCP Foundation kind of tabletop, but I've also heard comparisons to Paranoia and Inception (neither of these I can judge, since I haven't experienced either), and one could maybe argue that it's got a bit of the whole Persona 5 Phantom Thieves thing going on? That's as specific as I'm going to get about plot.

LACUNA is - hands-down - my favorite tabletop to run, and also basically my default when I want to run anything. It's got a somewhat specific setting, of course, but within the boundraries of that setting you can do so many things. I've played a game of it that leaned heavily on the surreal aspects, run a few sessions where the missions were simple but it was player interaction that provided the conflicts, listened to actual play sessions that shaped up more as psychological horror than as suspense, read threads that turned the main conflict into inner-Company bureaucratic hell - heck, I'm currently running it as more of an action-supernatural game right now. Once you adapt to the way the system works, it's surprising what you can manage.

I would, however, advise against starting LACUNA with a rigid plot in mind - it's a lot better to point the players at an eventual goal for a mission and see what type of shenanigans organically arise on the way to that objective. It's difficult - really, really difficult - to railroad your players in this game, because inevitably one of them will end up rolling and rerolling over and over to try and get a skateboard, and you'll have to adapt to that scenario. Plus, almost every aspect of character creation besides the basic stats is completely randomized.

Mechanics-wise, this game is pretty simple - characters have 3 stats, they can start out balanced (3 points in each stat) or skew themselves a bit (2 in one stat, 3 in another, 4 in the other). They roll as many d6s as they have points in that stat for a challenge, and if they meet an 11 or higher than they've succeeded at doing whatever that was. Pass or fail, that number gets added to their heart rate - and while they can choose to reroll, the new roll is also going to get added on.

The heart rate mechanic is one of two things that the GM should be paying attention to, as it determines the flow of play. Have a player below target heart rate? They'll probably be trying to make some rolls to get up to that target, since that range will allow them to roll as many dice as they like for the challenge. If they're in their target range, they might start conserving rolls for important things so they can be guaranteed to succeed - and if they reach maximum or above, the GM's going to have to drop the hammer and start really making faliures have consequences. The whole thing flows pretty naturally - while I personally cobbled together a quick resting mechanic for longer missions, it definitely also works without ourside interference.

I'm not sure what else to say about LACUNA - again, the less said, the better. If you're looking for a campaign to run that's going to leave a lasting impact on your players, if you have some imagery you want to work into a game but you have no idea how, I'd strongly suggest picking this up from one GM to another; and if you're someone who'd rather play this and not run it, send this to your GM of choice without further comment. It's a great game!

...What? You want to know about the other mechanic the GM needs to pay attention to? Sorry, Agent, that's above your clearance level.

Beautiful deisgn work coupled with one of the most interesting concepts for a game I've ever come across. Never had a bad time with it, the rules are exactly as meaty as I like, and its quick to get to the table.

Lacuna is a wonderful rules-lite rpg of surreal horror/mystery. It is a little difficult to classify as the game is only about half-done in terms of rules, and the rest is all left up to the GM to complete. No two games of Lacuna are ever played alike between different groups.

The game's setting is Blue City, a manifestation of Jung's collective unconscious, though most people will just think of it as the dream world of Inception or the digital world of The Matrix. Sometimes it gets as freaky as InterZone from the movie Naked Lunch, it all depends on your game. Players are agents for The Company and dive into Blue City to extract hostile personalities from within the dream world. Settings are generally the first thing I change when playing a new game, but this setting is vague enough that any changes you make are still as canon as any changes anyone else has made.

At its core, the main mechanic for Lacuna is your heart rate. This is a fantastic system that paces the game very, very well. Everytime you make a roll in Blue City, your heart rate increases. The more stress you undergo while in Blue City, the higher your bpm gets, and the more risky your further actions become. Once you reach your maximum threshold, you must eject from Blue City or suffer a heart attack and die. Instead of taking damage to health from risky activities, you take damage to your abilities. It is worth noting that since every roll you make is added to your bpm, rolling high is actually unfavorable in this game. You want to get as close to your target number (11) as possible without going too much over.

While the vagueness of the setting is a positive in my eyes, the incompleteness of the rest of the rules can be seen as a negative. The book only really gives rules for things the player characters can do. While it includes hints of the "bad guys" (see the spiderman in the Soviet uniform on the cover), it never details how a combat would turn out or how to resolve such things. Some see this as a positive. I have personally seen two GMs play it very different ways, one required multiple successes to accomplish difficult tasks to take down the "boss" of the scenario, and the second concluded that one success was enough, preferring to emphasis surrealism and investigation over conflict and dice-rolling. Under the rules as written, both are equally right and wrong, as it is never written in the first place.

On the nature of the pdf as a product, it is underwhelming. The front cover is missing, and the first page of the pdf opens onto the copyright page. I really like the cover image and was disappointed when it was missing from the pdf. There is no table of contents, so while the pdf is only 62 pages, if you want to quickly get to the npc mentor page quickly, you have to scroll through until you find it. Since the book is short, it is more an annoyance than a pain, but a ToC would be nice to have.

One final note: the character sheet is one of the most unique and creative examples I have seen. The combination of scantron and medical document really set the stage of being a faceless employee of a shadowy corporation/government agency. I've seen other players' eyes go wide when they see it for the first time.

...I downloaded the PDF from DriveThruRpg and started reading. And didn't stop until I finished the last page. (It's not a large book, but I don't tend to suck down RPG manuals in one sitting.) My powers of Google were activated and I read everything I could find. I even watched a three hour actual play (that didn't do the game justice).

I was obsessed. It happens.

Why the trip down the rabbit hole? This RPG provides a dark, surreal setting where the players are Mystery Agents diving into the collective unconscious to dispatch Hostile Personalities to the Lacuna. Criminals are then "cured" of their "criminal disease" in order to provide "a better, safer world."

That right there is enough to provide a couple of fun gaming sessions. But the very long sub-title promises the creation of a mystery. And it definitely keeps its promise...

...Lacuna Part 1 (second attempt) provides a rich, intriguing, completely screwed up setting. It gives you an easy to grasp system with tension builders ready to go. It introduces you to an organization with an "interesting" history. It proposes a lot of questions. Some have answers, some have strong hints, and some are seemingly unanswered.

There is a lot there. But it does leave a lot to the GM. It's been called a "Rorschach for the GM" by many, many (MANY) people in the forums and posts I devoured. There's a lot to play with but it doesn't hold your hand or provide you with a sample scenario. You can run it as a quick one shot without a lot of prep. Or you can obsess like me, watch movies, read old actual play posts, read the book again, try to grasp what you think is going on- and then plan a few sessions, drop hints, seed the story, and see where your players take it. Which may be somewhere you never imagined.

Or I guess you could find some kind of middle ground between no prep and obsession. Whatever.

Bottom Line: If you're open to something different, like the surreal and the weird, and want to play monster hunting Mystery Agents diving into the collective unconscious- send your GM this link and then DO NOT research the game any further. The less the players know, the more fun the game will be for all.

If you're open to something different, like the surreal and the weird, and are comfortable running a game where you and your players are expected to create Part 2 to the Part 1 provided, this is well worth your $10. We're two sessions in and having a great time.

I ran this a while back with some cousins who had never role-played before. A little ad-libbing was all it took to get this game running well and everybody seemed to have a good time. I'd definitely bring this one out again.

I haven´t played it yet, just read it a couple of times. Honestly, I think some things could be better explained. I guess they will become clear after playing it.
Now, the general idea and the setting looks very promising. It´s quite different from everything else I have read or played in the last 20 years, and I´m really looking forward to try it out!

As a fan of the old 1980's text adventures (retroactively entitled Interactive Fiction, or IF), I find that Action Castle scratches the itch to play a text adventure in a group admirably. It's quick, easy, and very simple. The price matches the complexity of the game, but don't mistake its simplicity for being inelegant. The genius design elements are the way the IF is translated from a parser with definitions and one player into a group game with a Game Master (called a Parser here).

If you're looking for a quick game to entertain friends in between campaigns or a beer-and-pretzel substitution for game nights that are a wash, take a look here and at all the Parsely games out there. It's well worth $2.

In a general sense, Parsely games are pretty awesome party games. Blackboard Jungle is a great quick example of how they run. It's a little short, but it's also only 99c, while the print copy is included with Action Castle II, I think. It's a solid addition to the series, and a great demo of how quick the game can run. Thumbs up!

A grim, visceral RPG from Memento Mori Theatricks, the farm is a game about survival, leadership, and the gradual discovery of a horrible reality.

The game uses a dice pool system with an inventive twist - a group of players designate a leader at certain times during the game, and this player can roll dice for a group of players and distribute them as they see fit. It's a clever system that could easily be stripped out and reutilized in other survival-style RPGs.

the farm would be a great choice for any group looking for a one-shot horror RPG - but it is definitely not for the faint of heart. (It should be noted that the rules limit the number of players to 6, so bear this in mind before you start inviting gamers over!)

Lacuna is one of my most favourite games. It has a light and tight rule set, just the right amount to play the game and invoke the right feel and pacing. Its setting is vague enough to be very extensible, yet communicated in an effective way through text, imagery and layout to let GMs know what the key aspects and dominant themes are. Most importantly (to me), it allows for instant in-character play, through character creation to conclusion, and require no prior knowledge on part of the players. It lets play groups do high action and mission-based play while still incorporating themes of ethical and philosophical concern into the story to whatever degree you prefer, and you can easily gear it more towards humour or more towards horror as you wish (my games tend to have a roughly equal degree of both). Truly mind-blowing!
Rating 4 rather than 5 stars because the PDF format itself is not taken advantage of; no bookmarks, fillable character sheet, integrated JavaScript table rollers, asset section for GM prep (generation of custom handouts of in-game documents and artifacts is common in Lacuna prep), etc. Inclusion of some of these features would easily have made the PDF version much more useful than the print book.

I really loved the concept behind this game, and found it enjoyable, but incredibly short. This game lays the foundation for the series, and provides a quick and easy "tutorial" for the rest of the series, however as a standalone product I found it too short to be of much fun alone.

What an awesome game. This brought back all my memories of text-based adventure games, and really captured the spirit of those games. One person takes the role of the program / computer and waits for commands from the "player", which can be one or more people. The player makes simple commands, such as "open door" or "pick up object" and the program responds with simple statements such as "you have picked up object". The fun comes from the players trying to puzzle out both the correct commands to get things done, as well as work out what they are meant to be doing and "solve" the mystery of Action Castle. Each time a player gives a command that cannot be completed the program player must respond with a simple "You cannot do that", or possibly something more humorous, in the same way the original computer programs might. The program player is encouraged to misinterpret (or literally interpret) the commands and take advantage of any mis-speaking a player might do. This is a quick game to learn and play and my friends and I had a blast with it. I would recommend picking it up, and all the other games in the Parsley series.

I was excited to check out this product. The concept sounded entertaining and intriguing and have some small times during my day where it would be a nice little mental excercise. Alas, it wouldn't completely print on an 8.5x11 piece of paper. It has the edges cut off all the way around the printable area and now amount of configuring on my part (which should be uncessary) will make it work. Perhaps legal-sized paper? It's a shame because I love the portable, self-play concept of the it all.

Hi, Melinda.
Blackboard Jungle is now re-formatted to be the same dimensions as the other Parsely games (when they're printed out and z-folded). Also, it's not a single player game, so grab some friends and try it out!
- Jared

I just can't work out if Memento Mori Theatricks have pulled the fastest retro nostalgia scam on us or that they are a bunch of geniuses!
Despite my initial concerns of "How do I convince anyone to sit down and play this with me?", "How do I even describe it?" they've really hit on something here. The problem is that you've just got to take the risk and spend those 99 cents, because these games might completely save a rainy afternoon (or a power cut - outage).
Put away everything you've learned about using dice, stats, DMing or story telling and let the brutal logic of long forgotten insufferable computer games guide you to your death.
This is definitely a new niche. The good news is that you don't have to wait for a piece of paper to load. The bad news is that its a return to the hell of early computer games.
In summary, Memento Mori must be stopped!
But first you must LIGHT TORCH and GO UP ...
If this is your thing it's a bargain. If not ... well, how are you going to find out? You could be missing out on the next new (retro old school?) thing.
I was going to say 4 out of 5, but I'm worried that the other reviewers here know something I don't, and the PDF download will detonate and turn my computer into PET or 286 or something ...
So 5/5 for originality, value, humour and guts!